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Proper 7B (2015)
2 Corinthians 6:1-13

I recently ran across an old issue of Forbes magazine published way back in the year 2000. This special edition focused on one single topic which the editors called the “the biggest issue of our age”. Any guess what that might be? Remember this was 15 years ago. Time.The editors wrote, “We've beaten most of humanity's monsters: disease, climate, geography, and memory. But time still defeats us. Lately its victories seem more complete than ever. Those timesaving inventions of the last half-century have somehow turned on us. We now hold cell phone meetings in traffic jams, and 24-7 has become the most terrifying phrase in modern life.” That was 15years ago; I fear things have only gotten much worse.

While many of us experience time as a source of stress, the Bible clearly presents time as a gift from God. Indeed, time and space are God's chosen media for divine revelation as seen in the birth of Jesus at a particular moment in history and in a real place. Time and space are the only context in which we encounter Godthis side of heaven. Why then has time seemingly become a crushing burden?

For one thing, time is limited, and we ever-busy Americans chafe at such an unyielding limitation. We may discern inequalities in certain gifts that God has given to us such as financial resources, skills andintellectual abilities but time is different. With regard to time, people are truly equal. We all are charged with managing exactly sixty minutes over the next hour. In a culture that seems increasingly panicked about such a basic responsibility, what is the call of God? Let's consider three responses.

First, our call clearly is to embrace God's perspective on time. What is God's perspective? It is that time is not our enemy. We may complain that we don't have enough time or that our time is going too fast. But God's perspective is that we already have at our disposal exactly the number of hours we need to do what God wants us to do. The call of God is to be present at each moment as it arrives. Time is a gift to be opened one minute at a time -- and no faster. Psalm 90 informs us that God is uniquely able to experience a “telescoping” of time -- that for God a thousand years are like a day, but even more intriguing, that a day is as rich and meaningful as a thousand years. In other words, every moment matters eternally -- which means that this present moment counts forever.

One of the great errors of the modern age is to try to force time to be ever more productive. That's why so many of us are suckers for the next generation of computers, smart phones, iPads and every other electronic gadget that comes along. We’re afraid that our outmoded technology will cost us valuable time –literally only seconds usually—if we use anything but the latest generation of equipment

A now classic cartoon published in the June 22nd, 1957, issue of the New Yorker magazine showed a young woman standing in what any seasoned traveler would recognize as St. Mark’s Square, Venice. Looking confused, she moans “But if it’s Tuesday, it has to be Siena”. We’ve all been on those dreadful tours that whisk you through museum after museum, or from one holy site to the next, so that by the end of the day, let alone the end of the tour, it is nothing but a blur. Some people experience thirteen countries in thirteen days and then claim to be experts on European culture. Contrast that person with someone who has lived for a decade in Paris.

We must resist the temptation to become tourists in our own lives: “I'd like to take the four-hour highlight tour of parenting, please.”“Come on, kids, it's time to do third grade. Stand right there and let me get your picture. Okay, on to the next stage in your life.” We must refuse to buy tickets for the quick walk-through of theMuseumofReligious Experiences. God calls us not to rush through the time that has been given to us, but to be fully alive to God and to each other within these moments. Why? Because every one of these moments counts forever.

Second, our call is to embrace God's shape to time. Recall these words from the creation story in Genesis: “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” This shape is what gives our lives a meaningful rhythm. When we rebel against that rhythm, there are consequences.Indeed, do we naturally know what time it is anymore? The boundaries and shape of daily life are rapidly becoming blurred. One can now shop on-line any hour of the day or night, 365 days a year. Consider the television commercial which portrays a group of stunned consumers standing during the middle of the night outside a conventional store. No lights are on. The customers are puzzled, “It's closed. Man, that is so weird.” We havecome to expect that everything should be available every hour of every day. What season is it any more? We no longer have to wait for summer to get fresh strawberries and watermelons. And need I mention the appearance of Christmas paraphernalia anytime after –what is it down to now – Labor Day? Contemporary culture clearly wants to remove the boundaries customarily imposed by the more classic shapes and rhythms of time.

In an act that is flagrantly counter-cultural, the leaders of some spiritual retreats demand that participants give up their cell phones. Giving up one's cell phone –it used to be one’s watch – is tantamount to giving up control –which is precisely the act of faith that God asks of us moment by moment when it comes to time. Our call is to trust God and to pay attention to three important rhythms connected to our experience of time.

The God-given shape of timeinvites us, first of all, to Divert Daily. That means we must stop every day for rest. A key component of the management of time requires us to get the sleep our bodies need. For some the very idea that we sleep away one third of our lives seems like an incalculable waste. I usually only sleep 6 hours, but I do love those weekend naps! Whatever the number, it is during those sleeping hours that our bodies carry out something like eighty percent of the biological processes required to maintain basic health. Furthermore, the example of Jesus challenges us to commit a portion of each day to the experience of simply being in the presence of God. The goal of that down time is not to be productive but simply to be.As I’ve told you before, that time need not be spent kneeling at one’s bedside. For me it is found in the solitude of swimming, biking, or running.

Second, the shape of time that God has provided invites us to Withdraw Weekly. This speaks to the notion of the Sabbath. God worked for six days at the beginning of creation,and then God rested. For us to withdraw from work one day out of seven is to act God-like. God doesn’t merelysuggest a Sabbath. It is one of the original Ten Commandments. Our Sabbath doesn't have to be on Sunday nor even on a weekend. But one-seventh of our time during each week should be reserved to pray, refresh and re-create.

And finally, God's design for time also invites us to Abandon Annually. In Old Testament times, faithful Jews were required –if at all possible – to journey to Jerusalem three times a year. For those living in the far reaches of Palestine, like Jesus, this could easily mean a week’s journey. These pilgrimages were a time for whole families, indeed whole villages, to enjoy life and to enjoy each other. In essence what they had was a divinely ordained vacation. While not an issue for most of us at our stage of life, it is for many of our children, grandchildren and loved ones. To believe that we shouldn't take a break each year -- to assert that our work is far too important to slow down -- is to take ourselves far too seriously and to violate the rhythm and shape of time as God has provided it. Study after study confirms that Americans take only half of the paid vacation time to which they are entitled. What’s more, 61% of Americans do work while they’re on vacation, one-in-four report being contacted by a colleague about a work-related matter, while one-in-five have been contacted by their boss.
As we struggle to incorporate God's perspective into our lives, that time is not a monster to be tamed, we hear in the background Paul's cry at the beginning of today’s epistle. This momentmay seem like any ordinary moment, but it is, in fact, an extraordinary gift of God. Now is the time to receive God's grace.This moment countsforever. If we were asked,“Do you want to do something today that will be eternally significant?” our likely response is to sigh and say, “You know, my day is already so full. I really don't have time.” To that Paul thunders in reply, “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”Perhaps we are waiting for the crush of time to pass when we can turn our attention fully to spiritual questions -- when we're not so busy. We're waiting until we feel better, until the season is over, until our guests leave. Just like we said fifty years ago, let’s wait for the children to get into school, or let’s wait until they’re out of college; let’s wait until the nest is empty, or we retire, or whatever. But as you undoubtedly already know, if you are honest with yourself, there is never going to be a right time when all the stars in the heavens are perfectly aligned. Therefore God calls us to act now. The wise heart is the one which recognizes this moment is a life-changing moment when we let it belong fully to God.

In 1876 explorer and journalist Henry Stanley needed to make adecision. Would he continue his exploration of the treacherous Congo River or turn back? He called his trusted aide to his tent where they discussed in detail the pros and cons. After hours of debate and no resolution, they decided to flip a coin.Heads they would continue; tails they would go home. The coin came up tails. Disappointed, they flipped the coin again. Tails.“How about three out of five?” said Stanley. Once again it was tails. In fact the coin came up tails six times in a row. The two men then decided to draw straws -- long straw to go forward, short straw to go back. Every time they drew, however, they picked the short straw.At last they realized that in their hearts, they had already made their decision. They were going to continue regardless of what coins or straws told them.
My friends, we don't need to flip coins or draw straws to know what is on God's heart. God calls us to receive his grace -- to embrace God's perspective and shape of time. We arenot called to wait for the next moment or the perfect time. This moment, right now, is the time to respond. This moment belongs to God. That's why it counts forever. “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”